


how they come and go

by greenbucket



Category: Sarah Jane Adventures
Genre: Gen, Home, Rivers, Teenagers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-18
Updated: 2018-12-18
Packaged: 2019-09-22 02:47:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,700
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17051615
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/greenbucket/pseuds/greenbucket
Summary: What was she supposed to say? No, just clothing four teenage aliens that I’m trying to sneak unnoticed through the middle of London. Yes, aliens are real, yes, it’s all very dangerous and what-have-you. Anyway, have a lovely afternoon!





	how they come and go

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Amilyn](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Amilyn/gifts).



> Title from Nick Drake's _River Man_.

Sarah Jane was enjoying a late summer afternoon in the park, taking a break from writing an article on reduced parking spaces that remained dry no matter how much animation she’d tried to inject into the topic, when she heard screams. Not the piercing but ultimately joyful shrieks of children on their summer holidays, or the sounds of an inevitable tantrum, or even the sounds of adults arguing – it was the kind of scream that had Sarah Jane up off her bench and running before she’d even fully registered it.

People were gathered at the edge of the large pond, some with their hands over their mouths and others with their phones in their hands; ready to call an ambulance, Sarah Jane hoped, as she spotted someone child-sized being pulled from the water.

And peeking around the branches of a weeping willow– Sarah Jane blinked, and the figure was gone. She had her doubts about it being gone entirely, of course, but it was gone from sight at least, and there were far more pressing matters to attend to: someone said they had phoned for an ambulance, but in the meantime the little boy was vomiting up pond water and the mother nearing hysterics.

But Sarah Jane hesitated a moment, trying to think of what she could say to reassure or remember what exactly you were supposed to do for someone that had almost drowned. And in that moment of hesitation other people had already rushed in.

“You’re alright, you’re all safe now,” one of the people who seemed to know what they were doing was telling the boy; both mother and child, and the gathered audience, seemed to calm a little at the outside reassurance that things were under control.

For the best, Sarah Jane thought, that others had it in hand. She took several steps back from the scene – what did she know, after all, about comforting words? She’d lost the knack for them somewhere along the way and hadn’t had much occasion to get back it back, what with even K9 in deep space now.

Investigating, though, Sarah Jane could still do. She hung back, waiting and keeping an eye while the paramedics arrived, then set off to get her towards the trees at the pond’s edge. She was thankful that she had reflexively grabbed her bag when she’d heard the first scream; whoever or whatever created a situation where a child almost drowned should probably be approached with some level of caution, meaning her sonic lipstick to hand.

There were Bubbleshock bottles littering the edge of the pond and the bank was slippery with yesterday’s rain; it would be easy for the child’s mother to explain away the incident, which was good, but it made moving stealthily tricky.

Although perhaps there was no need for stealth. Sarah Jane couldn’t see anyone by the water, not even a movement in the trees that didn’t seem to be the light afternoon breeze. She stood for a moment, straining her eyes and ears and considering if a quick sonic lipstick scan might show anything up. And then, quite clearly and quite separate from everything else, she heard: “Ugh, Ginny, would you shove over? You’re right on my foot, stupid.”

Sarah Jane blinked. The voice had sounded like any other person she might have found in London, not particularly alien at all. “Hello?” she called out, just to be sure her eyes hadn’t been playing tricks when she’d first reached the pond. Perhaps this was an issue for the actual police. “Is anyone there?”

The willow tree went still, unnaturally so.

“You can come out,” Sarah Jane said after a pause. “Don’t worry, I don’t mean you any harm. I’m not with anyone.”

From between the branches, still stood in the water, out came someone that appeared to be human. They were human shaped and teenager-sized, had long hair to their waist and seemed to be wearing matching green shorts and t-shirt, plus a small cap. Reasonable summer wear, Sarah Jane concluded, although it was starting to move towards slightly cooler weather. She tried to push away a perverse disappointment that it was just teenagers being teenagers, a thought that also made her feel terribly old.  

The teenager hadn’t spoken or moved further out of the trees, so Sarah Jane asked straight to the point: “Did you push that little boy into the water, or see who did?”

The teenager was refusing eye contact, which Sarah Jane automatically read as shifty. Then she reminded herself that wasn’t necessarily the case and decided to be patient. Eventually, the teenager gave an unconvincing, “No.”

Sarah Jane held back a sigh. “Well, I saw you in the pond just now. I don’t think that’s allowed, so if you did see anything, now would be the time to say.”

“We didn’t see anything.”

“We?”

With a caught-out expression, the teenager said something over her shoulder that Sarah Jane didn’t catch, and three more people seemed to materialise from the branches of the willow tree. Other than some looking younger and some older, they were all eerily similar and that was when Sarah Jane realised that they didn’t look quite right.

That is, they didn’t look quite human. Where she’d thought their skin was just pale and under the shadow of the tree, she realised it was green. What she’d thought was hair may well have still been, but it was nothing like human hair, and the clothes weren’t clothes at all – it was just their skin, or their hide, or whatever else they might have called it. Their caps likewise seemed to be part of their actual bodies.

“Oh,” said Sarah Jane. “You’re not teenagers at all.”

The one that had already spoken, who seemed to be the eldest, rolled their eyes. “We mostly are, actually, but if you mean _human_ teenagers then no, we’re not.”

“What kind of teenagers are you then?” Sarah Jane asked, reaching as subtly as she could into her bag to get a grip on her sonic lipstick. Teenage belligerence could be far more dangerous in a different species, even without malicious intent.

“Aqchloid teenagers.”

Sarah Jane turned the name over in her mind. _Ack-loid_. It didn’t ring any bells. “Home planet?”

“Earth,” was the slightly smug response. “Somewhere else, many millennia ago, of course. But Earth, and much earlier than when humans came along.”

“Well, okay,” Sarah Jane said. She’d quite like to ask a few more questions about that, possibly get Mr Smith on the case, but there was still the issue to hand: “Did you push that boy into the water? Aqchloid or not, that’s not acceptable behaviour. He could’ve drowned.”

One of them that hadn’t spoken yet, and seemed to be the youngest, piped up, “We didn’t push him in! He just made eye contact with us and that’s what happens.”

Trying not to sound too sceptical, Sarah Jane asked, “Making eye contact with you makes people drown?” That was received with nods from three of them and an eye roll from the eldest, so she continued, “Well, all right then. If you don’t mind me asking, why did you make eye contact if that’s the case?”

“It was an accident,” said one.

“He looked at us,” said another.

“None of your business,” said the oldest.

“I think it was me,” said the youngest, meek. And then all in a rush, “I swear I didn’t mean to! Doing mischievous stuff is just what we _do_ and I don’t think I would’ve actually drowned him but I don’t really have control over that whole bit yet and I didn’t like being in the pond and I want to go home.”

Sarah Jane watched as, as far as she could tell, beneath the water the other three all tried to stamp on the youngest’s foot at once.

There was a part of Sarah Jane, the insatiable curiosity part, that wanted to sit the four of them down with K9 by her side and Mr Smith’s knowledge to hand and find out _everything_. But the part of her that won out was the part which couldn’t help but stick on the fact they were young teenagers (albeit alien ones) in need.

“If you promise to try really very hard not to drown anyone else, I can try to help you get home,” she offered, letting go of her sonic lipstick for the first time. “Do you have names?”

Deeply unimpressed, the eldest pointed at herself and said, “Jenny,” at the youngest and said, “Ginny,” then one of the middling ones and said, “Jeannie,” then the last and said, “Jannie.”

That was going to be challenge to keep straight, Sarah Jane thought, though what she said was, “Nice to meet you. I’m Sarah Jane Smith.”

“And you’re not with anyone?”

“No, it’s just me.”

“How are you so calm then?” asked Jeannie-or-Jannie in tones of check mate. “I’ve never actually spoken to a human before, but I think you’re generally supposed to freak out more.”

It still stung a bit to say aloud, but less so than it had before, when Sarah Jane said, “I used to travel with a man called The Doctor.”

The effect was immediate.

“The Doctor?” Jenny repeated, hushed and for once with no disparaging or distrustful edge to it.

Jannie-or-Jeannie seemed delighted. “You met the Doctor? That’s so cool!”

And Ginny said, “If you travelled with the Doctor then you can help us! We’re lost because some humans came and took our mother away. Torch something is what Jenny thinks, but they’re mean either way. Do you think you could you help us find her?”

“No,” Jenny snapped.

Sarah Jane blinked, taken aback by the sharpness. She hadn’t even had time to react to the news that she was apparently dealing with four abandoned, potentially orphaned teenage Aqchloids in a pond in the park. “I’m sorry to hear about your mother,” she said, because there wasn’t anything else to be said and because she _was_ sorry. “What help do you need?”

Ginny, Jeanie and Jannie all looked over at Jenny, a little tentative after Ginny had been shot down so thoroughly.

Jenny ignored their looks. “We need you to get us to the Thames,” she said as briskly as an obviously nervous and upset but trying to hide it teenager could. “We live in the rivers, in case you didn’t realise. We were upstream in the Brent, but we have family in the Thames and it’s what our mother told us to do before they took her, so we’re going.”

“We’re lost, though,” added in Ginny, voice smaller than before. “Even Jenny hasn’t grown the navigation bit in her brain yet and there are lots of things mother didn’t warn us about.”

“Big roads,” said Jeannie-or-Jannie solemnly. “That really threw me off.”

Jenny sent the others another quelling look, then turned back to Sarah Jane. “We’re not _lost_ , but we could use your help. The currents are stronger than we thought closer to a big river, which is bad enough, but at the rate we’re going we’re not going to make it before the end of summer.”

Jeannie-or-Jannie nodded and added, “We’re too young to travel in winter. We’ll get stuck and start starving, and Ginny will get even worse with her mischief.”

Ginny poked Jeannie-or-Jannie and huffed, “It’s not my fault! I wasn’t supposed to learn all that stuff yet.” She turned back to Sarah Jane, who was beginning to feel like a bit of a spectator. “So will you help us? Get to the Thames and maybe find mother later, I mean. Ooh, could you call the Doctor?”

Jenny made a face, but the others all looked so hopeful, and they were all so young, that Sarah Jane knew she couldn’t say no. Well, not to all of it.

“I can’t promise the Doctor, as you can imagine he’s a very busy man,” she said, “but the Thames I can help you with. It’s quite a long river, though. Which bit?”

“Where was it that mother said again?”

“I don’t know it in this language.”

“Oh, um...”

“Green-witch, I think.”

“Green-witch,” Jenny agreed, closing the matter. “By the thing humans use to look at stars.”

Sarah Jane considered correcting their pronunciation, but ultimately it seemed a little too mean and she was distracted by the sinking realisation she was going to have to get four in turns surly and chatty and all around agitated teenage aliens all the way across London.

“Greenwich,” she repeated, just to be sure. “All right. You must be able to step outside water if you made it to here, so how would you feel about coming over to mine for a bit while we sort this all out? I’ve got my car.”

 

-

 

It turned out that Aqchloids were not suited for car travel at all, even for such a short distance as from the park to Bannerman Road. They piled out of the car slow and unsteady, quiet for the first time since they’d classed Sarah Jane as an ally and looking more than a little queasy. Sarah Jane took a moment to be thankful across the road had moved out although the house wasn’t sold yet; that place had far too good a view of her drive, as did the street in general, so she ushered the Aqchloids in quickly.

Then, while the kids waited in her living room with Mr Smith alert upstairs, Sarah Jane sped over to the nearest charity shop. The plan as she’d cobbled together in the drive over couldn’t exactly be called a plan, but it was a vague outline of action at least – and it required buying four pairs of trousers and four pairs of long-sleeved tops at random and a bunch of hats and scarves. Items collected, she considered the shoes section for a minute, but the Aqchloids’s feet – wide and webbed as Sarah Jane had seen once they finally stepped out of the pond - didn’t really seem suited to human footwear.

“Doing a wardrobe overhaul?” the woman at the till asked, smiling as she folded and rang up Sarah Jane’s collection.

“Mm,” said Sarah Jane and took the bag, quickly turning to leave with a nod. Rude, but for the best. What was she supposed to say? _No, just clothing four teenage aliens that I’m trying to sneak unnoticed through the middle of London. Yes, aliens are real, yes, it’s all very dangerous and what-have-you. Anyway, have a lovely afternoon!_

Back at the house, the little group of Achqloids were still sat in the living room where Sarah Jane had left them. She might have been fooled if Ginny hadn’t broken out into quickly stifled giggles as Sarah Jane came through the doorway.

“I imagine I’ll be finding booby traps for a few weeks after this, won’t I?” she said to the room at large. The giggles started up again.

Sarah Jane tried to muster up more irritation than she was feeling, but it was hard when they were really just children. Besides, in their own words and Mr Smith’s knowledge, they were far less able to cause harm away from a body of water, and in the first place they were more focused on mischief than real trouble.

Sarah Jane placed her bag of clothes before them. “Right then, as I explained you’ll have to pop these on as we’ll have to be taking the underground and humans expect people to, well. Be wearing clothes. I’ll be in the kitchen, give you some privacy.”

None of them looked enthusiastic at the prospect, and quite confused at the prospect of privacy, too, but they reached into the bag and started distributing items between them all the same.

In the kitchen, Sarah Jane took a moment to lean against the counter and gather her thoughts. She was going to have to change her schedule on writing her boring parking article. She needed to check what route would be most direct on the tube. She needed to figure out what was going on with this potential Torchwood-stealing-mothers business. She needed to eat, at some point, and make sure her little team of teens ate some of the pond weed they’d brought with them from the pond.

Outside the window, the sun was setting. That was good – less light for people to look and notice green skin and mismatched fashion and think something like _those people aren’t wearing shoes_.

“Sarah Jane?”

Jenny had appeared in the doorway, dressed in jogging bottoms and bright yellow shirt that fit quite well but Jenny’s expression said were uncomfortable and weird feeling. She was holding an apple-patterned scarf out and asked, “We were just wondering how you wanted us to use these?”

Sarah Jane reached out for the scarf automatically but dropped her hand quickly when Jenny flinched back.

"Sorry," said Jenny, looking embarrassed.

"No need to apologise," Sarah Jane said, with more ease than she honestly felt. "I was just thinking perhaps you might like something to cover up your-" She gestured to what she had thought were small caps on the tops of their heads, and she now realised she wasn't sure of the name of. "It might tip people off."

Jenny looked down at the scarf with consideration, turning it this way and that, and then used her reflection in the kitchen window to tie it neatly over her hair. "Like this?"

"Yeah, that's great. The others can do it however feels comfortable, really."

"Okay, I'll tell them," Jenny said, but didn't turn to go like Sarah Jane expected. She didn't look at Sarah Jane either, focusing on the kitchen counter instead, and Sarah Jane had half a mind to just move the subject on to how to prepare pond weed to break the silence. 

Instead, suprising herself a little, she asked a question that had been nagging at her since the park: “Are you entirely sure you don’t want to try and find your mum? I can’t promise to storm somewhere like Torchwood headquarters singlehandedly,” – although she’d be happy to try – “but I can ask around. I have contacts, good people that are in the know. Even other than the Doctor.”

Jenny shook her head, staring even harder at the counter and her lips pressed together. “Don’t tell the others,” she said eventually, voice quiet yet steady, “but when the people – Torchwood, or whatever – took mother away I saw that they- the water drained out of our mother’s-” She said a word that Sarah Jane didn’t recognise as any from earth, but did from Mr Smith's brief overview, and gathered the rest from Jenny gesturing to where the cap was under the scarf. “We need water in there always, to be able to live."

"Oh," said Sarah Jane, the response feeling entirely inadequate.

Jenny's lips pressed together harder. "So I know there’s no way she’s still alive, but I don't want- I can't tell the others yet,” she said, and blinked hard although Sarah Jane couldn't see any sign of tears.

"Oh," Sarah Jane said again, and it felt just as insufficient a word as before. "Jenny, I am _so_ sorry, I didn't mean to- I mean- would you like a hug?"

Jenny took a moment to consider this, still blinking and staring hard at the kitchen counter with her mouth clamped shut. "I think I would, actually," she said after a pause, her voice coming out much more wavery than before.

Sarah Jane wasn't much one for hugging, or rather she wasn't against it but there hadn't had anyone but K9 to hug for so long that she'd along the way simply written it out of her repertoire. It felt stiff and strange at first, both of them a little awkward. She couldn't imagine what comfort Jenny could be getting out of the hug at all, even as she felt something in her own chest ease to be able to offer it, until abruptly Jenny was clinging to her and Sarah Jane automatically held her back tightly in return.

"Thanks," Jenny said after a bit, pulling back and straightening her scarf. Now the hug was over, she seemed awkward and embarrassed again; Sarah Jane herself felt a little fragile, so she didn't push it.

"Let's see where the others have got to getting dressed," she suggested instead, "then we can get some food in you and be off."

 

-

 

For all the fuss to get there and make sure that things were undercover, the trickiest part about riding the underground to Greenwich was the cost. Sarah Jane balked at the number on the ticket machine, especially considering four fifths were single journeys, but punched in her pin all the same.

Then once Jenny, Jeannie, Jannie, and Ginny were haggled chattering excitedly through the station, actually into a carriage and onto seats (which for some reason they found endlessly amusing to bounce on), the other passengers either didn’t look up or gave them the briefest of glances. People were busy reading the paper or a book or on their phone, and those that did give a second glance were too polite to say anything. Distantly, as they swapped over to the DLR, Sarah Jane wondered if she’d even needed to make the run to the charity shop in the first place – clearly, there were stranger things to see on the tube than a woman chaperoning four aliens.

"Any idea whereabouts?" she asked after they'd disembarked the DLR and were making their way towards the imposing outline of the Royal Observatory against the night sky.

All except Jenny were severely flagging by now, looking tired and a little grey around the edges, even with the dinner of pond weed Sarah Jane had dubiously presented with them back at home. She wasn't sure if it was the journey, or the weight of what was happening finally getting to them all, or something about being out of the water for so long, but she was anxious to find whatever family they were supposed to have here before they got worse. Sneaking around in the dark was starting to make her feel wound up and tense, the back of her neck prickling like they were being watched.

Jenny shrugged, looking around. "They should be able to sense us. I can sort of feel they're about, but I'm not really old enough for that yet."

"All right, let's wait here then. We won't be able to get into the observatory itself at this time," Sarah Jane said, bringing them to a stop. "Well, we could, but that's breaking and entering which isn't worth it right now."

"I want to break and enter," said Jeannie-or-Jannie, perking up. "That sounds fun."

Sarah Jane tried not to smile at that. "It's illegal, I'm afraid. I'm no role model but I'm not _that_ bad."

"Not that bad at all, seeing as you've brought our children to us," said a voice to Sarah Jane's left. When she turned, the speaker was another Aqchloid and was leaning against the nearest wall like they'd been there all day. They were taller than her bunch, taller than the average man by a good half a foot, and their arms were folded across their chest but the pose came off as wary rather than aggressive.

"Uncle?" Ginny asked, small and hopeful, looking to Jenny for confirmation. Jenny shrugged, her arms having folded to mirror the other Aqchloid and her expression back to the impassive, slightly unwelcoming look from hours earlier in the pond. Sarah Jane hadn't even realised Jenny's resting face had changed to something more relaxed around her in the time since until it had reverted back.

"I'm Sarah Jane, nice to meet you," Sarah Jane said, sticking out a hand.

The Aqchloid waved it away. "No offence meant," he said, "I understand what you intended but I don't do that with humans."

Turning to the others, he spoke in a language that Sarah Jane had little doubt was the same as the one Jenny had spoken earlier, and slowly Jenny's arms uncrossed and she ushered the others ahead of her over to him. Sarah Jane was thinking that she'd spotted her cue to slip away unseen, a job well done and the prospects of a little family of Aqchloids brightening, when Jenny turned back to her.

"Thank you for your help," she said, and here she did hold out a hand. Sarah Jane couldn't help but think it strangely formal compared to how they had all been earlier, but maybe it was the presence of her uncle, or maybe it was just the end of the line; Sarah Jane took Jenny's hand all the same, and after a moment where she realised Jenny didn't know the next step, shook it and let go.

"No problem at all," Sarah Jane said. She considered apologising again for the loss of their mum, but instead decided on, "You gave me something to do other than pull my hair out writing a boring article about car spaces."

"Car spaces?" Jenny asked, and then held up a hand to cut Sarah Jane off before she could reply. "Humans are strange, I don't need to know."

"Probably for the best."

Jenny nodded, smiling, and then pulled a leaf from her pocket. Sarah Jane had no idea how it could've got there, becoming more confused when Jenny handed it to her and it contained a series of symbols that she couldn't read. "Give that to your friend Mr Smith," she said, "and then if you want to visit us ever, you should be able to freely."

The little leaf suddenly felt quite precious, and very delicate in Sarah Jane's hands. "Thank you, I'll take you up on that."

"I should get back to my family," Jenny said, taking a step back. Her smile turned into a wicked grin. "But I hope we'll see you by the river sometime." 

 

-

 

After all that excitement, Sarah Jane thought she was well deserving to brush her teeth and head straight to bed. She left the encoded leaf on the living room table under a vase of flowers for safe keeping and when she came down the next morning it was to see the vase and flowers knocked over, water seeping into the carpet, and the leaf replaced by a rotting fish.

Holding her breath, Sarah Jane pinched a fin between her finger and thumb, fully planning to fling it into the back garden for the neighbourhood cats. That was, until out of the fish's mouth dropped the same leaf, intact, and a little roll of paper. After she had chucked the stinking fish out back and washed her hands thoroughly, Sarah Jane unrolled it and read, in painstaking handwriting: _ha! boobytrap aktivated, u have bean pranked :)_

After a cup of tea to fully recover from the stink of the rotting fish, and get her mind online to finally nail down the stupid parking article for good, Sarah Jane took the leaf to Mr Smith and pinned the boobytrap note above her desk. She'd give them some time to settle in and (once it all came out) grieve their mother and decide if their stance on alien-meddling humans was to stay the same before visiting. Nonetheless, the note was a nice reminder of a good deed, as well as a new area of research. Sarah Jane quickly noted down _Aqchloid, pre-human Earth???_ , their names and what else she could remember that Mr Smith wouldn't have on file and shoved that piece of paper in the desk draw she informally considered her alien draw.

Opening her laptop with a sigh and pulling out stuff from her actual journalism desk draw, she glanced out the window and noticed that the 'for sale' sign across the road had finally switched to 'sold'. She wondered idly for a moment if the new owners would keep themselves to themselves or at least approach a few times before she writing her off as crazy and standoffish - she was well due for the hassle of the latter in the cycle of neighbour relationships - then shrugged the concern off and got back to work.


End file.
